News
On Dec. 20, 2011, negotiations over full-time faculty contracts between the Portland State chapter of the American Association of University Professors and the PSU administration ended in mediation. After a single day of mediation, both parties came to a tentative agreement, and a proposed contract was recommended for ratification by the PSU-AAUP’s collective bargaining team.
As the GOP race tightens, political pundits wonder if Oregon’s March 19 GOP debate and May 15 primary will have any effect in the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
Mitt Romney has emerged as the favorite to earn the nomination after winning both the Jan. 3 Iowa primary and the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary. Romney earned a combined estimated total of 14 delegates from those two elections, as opposed to an estimated 10 for Ron Paul and eight for Rick Santorum. Romney’s early lead has led to local worry that Oregon’s May 15 primary may not be of much importance, as it is held late in the election cycle.
Tomorrow at 7 p.m., Portland State’s Taiwanese Student Association is throwing a celebration at the downtown Hilton Hotel to ring in the Year of the Dragon. The Chinese New Year is considered by many to be the apex of traditional Chinese holiday festivals, both in matters of importance and excitement. This student-led event will try to live up to that reputation.
A cave in the Oregon Cascades may very well contain clues to ancient life on Mars, according to a paper published by Dr. Radu Popa, a Portland State researcher and associate professor of biology.
According to Popa’s paper, the South Ice Cave, located in central Oregon, sits at an elevation of 5,019 feet and isn’t actually a cave. It is a basalt lava tube, a common type of volcanic rock. Upon analysis, the volcanic rock shows evidence of fossilized bacteria that can survive in extreme conditions. The temperature in the cave can be as low as five degrees Celsius, and its physical environment is similar to that of Martian volcanoes.
On Thurs., Jan. 26, influential environmentalist, entrepreneur and author Paul Hawken will be at the Bagdad Theater to participate in the “Sustainability: Portland’s Opportunity to Re/Build & Lead” summit. Sustainability leaders from the Portland community will also participate in the discussion.
On Thursday, Jan. 12, TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane hosted TriMet’s first town hall meeting via Twitter. Overall it had a low turnout with only 33 participants of TriMet’s 7,426 Twitter followers. However, according to Mary Fetsch, TriMet’s chief media relations officer, the Twitter town hall was a new avenue for getting public feedback.
A recent study conducted by Dr. Andrew Fountain, a Portland State geology professor, shows that global climate change has affected local glaciers. According to the study, Mount Adams, located 31 miles from Mount St. Helens in the Southeast Washington Cascade Range, is experiencing severe changes due to the warming of the planet.
More than a week after a Dartmouth student was found dead in Barcelona, Spain, while participating in a study abroad program run by Portland State, authorities and officials from the two universities still have not determined the cause of his death.
On Jan. 15, the Student Fee Committee held deliberations for the 2012-13 student publications’ budget proposals in a meeting attended by Dean of Student Life Michele Toppe. The SFC proposed the reclassification of student positions at Portland State publications, which includes the Vanguard, the Rearguard, Portland Spectator, KPSU, PSU–TV, Pathos and The Portland Review.
On Thursday, Jan. 12, Portland State hosted a public-safety forum. The event, which was open to the public, provided a venue for discussion of campus public safety between staff, faculty and students. The forum resulted in several troubling questions raised by the university community.
Sitting on the university panel was Jessica Amo, assistant director of the Women’s Resource Center; Dr. Marcy Hunt-Morse, director of Counseling and Psychological Services; Phillip Zerzan, director of Campus Public Safety Office; and Charles Lopez, executive director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Michele Toppe, dean of student life, mediated the discussion.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation may include a provision in their five-year budget forecast to cut contracts for street re-paving.
While the proposal would cut contract street paving, PBOT would continue to do “in-house” paving. Contract paving is done for particularly large projects and the city is required by law, because of the budget, to put it out to bid to private contractors.